"Berkshire owns $170 billion of marketable stocks (not including our shares of Kraft Heinz), and the value of these holdings can easily swing by $10 billion or more within a quarterly reporting period. Including gyrations of that magnitude in reported net income will swamp the truly important numbers that describe our operating performance. For analytical purposes, Berkshire’s 'bottom-line' will be useless," said Buffet in his February letter. 

For its own part, the FASB said in its "Basis for Conclusions" section at the end of ASU 2016-01 that this new method presents a more relevant measurement attribute for equity investments and, thus, a benefit for users. 

"That  is  because  the  total  realizable value of most of those investments primarily could be realized ultimately by selling the  equity  instruments. This contrasts with debt instruments for which value can be realized through collection of interest and principal. Preparers will experience decreased  costs  and  complexity  because  the  challenging  impairment  model  for equity investments without readily determinable fair values is modified to a simpler process. In addition, reporting more timely information on the observable changes in fair value for those equity investments that were previously accounted for under the cost method will benefit both preparers and users," said the FASB. 

Regardless, Buffet said the firm plans to alleviate the issues arising from this rule change by continuing its practice of publishing financial reports late on Friday, well after markets close, or early on Saturday morning. This, said Buffet, will allow investors more time for analysis and give investment professionals the opportunity to deliver informed commentary before the markets open on Monday. However he still expected that the change will create "considerable confusion" among shareholders, "for whom accounting is a foreign language." 

The $1.1 billion net loss stands in stark contrast to the $29 billion gain that Buffet, in his February letter, attributed directly to the recent changes in the U.S. tax code, with a further $36 billion coming from actual activity and accomplishment from the firm. 

Berkshire Hathaway is not the only company to be impacted by the new standards. 

General Motors, in its recent Form 10-Q filing, said that by adopting the standards in January, the company made a $182 million cumulative effect adjustment recorded to the opening balance of retained earnings to adjust an investment previously carried at cost to its fair value. Johnson and Johnson, for its part, said in its own 10-Q that adopting the new standards increased retained earnings by $232 million net of tax. American Financial Group, meanwhile, posted $74 million in losses on securities, of which $71 million was attributable to adjusting equity securities to fair value, in contrast to the $2 million gain in the comparable 2017 period.